RC1 Version 1.4.8 Available

[dkardatzke]

Release Candidate version 1.4.8 is now available for testing at http://www.sage.tv/beta.html. The following items have been addressed. See the attached Release Notes for a complete list of changes from 1.4.7.

- VERY IMPORTANT: Changed all keystroke mappings for alphabetic keys by adding Ctrl to them, if they already had Ctrl, then Shift was added.
- DVD Playback is now fully integrated, added DVD button to Library, added ability to select Decoders, Filters, etc. under the DVD tab in Detailed Setup
- Fixed DirecTV Serial control support (SageTV only)
- Numerous bug fixes from 1.4.7

Please respond to this post with any issues so we can resolve them before we release version 1.4.8 to the public.

Thanks,
Dan

[Narflex]

I already found 2 minor DVD bugs, they slipped through due to some last minute changes:

1. The OSD when viewing a DVD does not show the correct audio language or subpicture language.
2. Using the Select Subpicture, Select Language, and Select Angle commands via the Options menu while viewing a DVD will have no effect. (but if you program the commands directly in Detailed Setup so they work with keystrokes or remote control buttons, those will work)

[fidget]

Originally posted by dkardatzke
- VERY IMPORTANT: Changed all keystroke mappings for alphabetic keys by adding Ctrl to them, if they already had Ctrl, then Shift was added.

I really hate to be the one to ask this question, but why change the key mappings? Was there a problem with the way the were? Is there an easy way to revert to the old key mappings?

[Narflex]

Believe me, I had a good reason. And I apoligize for the trouble I know it will cause some of you.

It's because of the search entry screen and the way the Hauppauge remote control works. There was no way to tell if a user was pressing a key on the keyboard or pressing a button on the remote control. And I (unfortunately) had mapped various Sage functions to regular alphabetic keys. Because of this if you hit 'Guide(Go)' on the Hauppauge remote while in the search entry screen, it would enter 'x' into the search field. In order to differentiate this by default, I needed to make the predefined mappings all modified keystrokes.

[fidget]

After updating to 1.4.8 RC1, I was happy to see that SageTV ratained my old key mappings. This is great for me becaue I currently only use a keyboard.

[malore]

Installing over version 1.4.7 seems to have created problems with the key mapping. The fast forward button on my pvr 250 caused SageTV to switch between full screen and a window. Looking at the key mapping in the Detailed Setup and most of the settings contained both the single key and the control key combination. Skip Fwd/Page Right however was mapped to f, while the irremote.ini setting was set to cntrl-f which as previous noted is set to switch the screen mode.

Is there a way to set all the key mappings to the default?

[hubick]

I still seem to be getting some lockups on my PVR 350 with software decoding disabled. If I watch a recorded program, and near (before) the end go to the Sage Recordings, and Delete Now... I get color bars on the screen... then the whole interface locks up at that moment... with the selected program still showing in the guide. The computer then needs to be reboot - and SageTV /really/ doesn't like to shut down. I had frequent lockups on 1.4.7 with SW Decode disabled, but no problems when I enabled it - I disabled it again shortly after 1.4.8 upgrade, so, yeah... I get the feeling that might have something to do with it.

Running Win XP, fully service packed, pvr250_17_21188 driver. ATI Rage LT Pro.

[salsbst]

bug: I was testing the suggestion to set feature_mask_disable to 8 to solve my audio problem... and so, having added back my 2nd 250, I was going about trying to force its use by setting a digital (= 1st 250) recording and then trying to view channels that are available on the analog tuner.

Somehow, SageTV decided that it could switch the recording of channel 114 (which is only available to card #1) to card #2. It was recording card #2's channel 4... when I went back to the guide, it switched recording back to card #1.

The good: if this is an attempt to allow in-show switching from one card to the other in order to accomodate livetv channel requests, then I'm basically in favor of it.... as long as it asks me first.

The bad: obviously sage can't go recording channel 114 from analog cable when my analog cable only goes up to 95.

Log file attached.

Regards,
Stuart

[salsbst]

good: So far I'm doing fine with disable_phase1_optimization=true. No runaway memory. Thanks!

[sub]

Like hubick above I'm also a PVR350 and still getting lockups with the software decoding disabled. I managed to reproduce the bug when deleting a show after watching a short clip. Also on exit after viewing a short clip.

[Narflex]

To revert to the default key mappings, delete the keyboard_accelerators line from the Sage.properties file

I'll look into the 350 sw decoding disabled lockups again.

salsbst, I'm also looking into what you've found. Thanks.

[salsbst]

Originally posted by salsbst
......The bad: obviously sage can't go recording channel 114 from analog cable when my analog cable only goes up to 95....

Update... not sure that this is related, but upon arriving home I find SageTV is claiming to be recording the same show (and same channel) twice simultaneously. However, I began to play "one" of the recordings (for about 10 seconds), then jumped back to guide and played the other one.... the second one took up where I left off with the first one so at least some part of SageTV realizes that they are the same show.

It's the 6:00pm time slot on 8/12 that seems as if it's double-recording. interestingly, the period of 6pm onward occupies almost all of my 70MB log file. I've excerpted from a few minutes prior to 6pm through several pages of the 6pm freak-out and attached it. I've saved a copy of the whole 70mb file... let me know if other parts or the whole thing are needed.

Regards,
Stuart

[salsbst]

What would cause a show under "Recording Schedule" to blink? I saw that and I've never seen it before... sorry to say that I don't remember what the show was ... I was too focused on the runaway log file.... having quit sagetv and relaunched it I don't see anything blinking anymore.

[Narflex]

salsbst, I've fixed the first problem you mention above that I said I'd look into, it wasn't obeying lineup differences when it was swapping tuners for a recording to avoid prompting the user.

The one you just mention here, I looked at the logs and they clearly show what happened. I'll check it out and it will be fixed for the next (and likely final) build. It shouldn't have caused any actual problems, but it was misbehaving as you noticed, thanks again for the help.

[brookb]

I've tried 1.3, 1.47, and 1.48, and they're all problematic. I tried going back to 1.3 because I thought it was supposed to be more reliable, but it wasn't - at least not for me. Right now, I've got 1.48. I've seen the following problems with in various versions at different times

1) Long startup times
2) SageTV will freeze up and can't be killed. Must power cycle the PC to get out of it.
3) After (2) occurs, the win.bin file is corrupt, and I have to restore from a backup. If I don't restore, then SageTV will get through about 45 seconds of startup, and then just disappear.
4) SageTV will be showing live TV or a recorded show successfully, but all control is lost via remote. There are black bars on the screen where the normal overlay menu button bars should be.

I've been trying this for 4 days, and there's only 6 days left in the trial. I must be honest that unless this can get more stable, I can't see purchasing it. If it wasn't buggy (and I'm sure that eventually it will be quite robust), then it would do almost exactly what I want. But as it is, it is just way too unreliable. Perhaps it works well for some folks, but for my setup, this is a non-starter. It is not ready for prime time. It messes up the home automation/server computer I have running to operate my house by 'freezing it up' when I'm not around, and I just can't have that happening. I'd be happy to beta test some more, but I'm not going to put the money out until I see something at least reasonably stable. I'd suggest lengthening the trial period to at least 30 days, or at least lengthening the tiral period for the beta releases. Not only will longer betas help folks like me who like the concepts but need to wait for something reliable, but it will help get others more 'hooked' before their trial runs out, thus resulting in a higher percentage of actual 'buys' when the trial is over.

Attached are various files that might help figure out what's happening. Didn't attach wiz.bin, cuz it's too large. The current wiz.bin and Sage.properties seem to be the corrupted ones that cause problem 3 listed above.

[mlbdude]

I agree the trial period is too short. Of they could solve it by resetting it each time a beta comes out.

By just looking at the log files you have attached it looks like you have some serious issues. When was the last time you installed a fresh OS on this PC? Is it dedicated to Sage? Are all your drivers up to date? Exceptions ine kernel32.dll are not good is what it comes down too

Good luck.

[jmeeks]

brookb,

Can you list your hardware setup a little bit, especially your audio solution on your computer. Whether you have a sound card or use the onboard AC'97 only, USB audio, etc.

For item #3 try this:
Instead of deleting your Sage.properties file, and going to the backup, edit the line: mmc/ignore_encoders=VIA AC'97 Audio (WAVE),Raw Channel Access Capture/Render,

and delete the reference to the VIA AC'97 Audio (WAVE).

So its reads like this:
mmc/ignore_encoders=Raw Channel Access Capture/Render,

Save it and try to startup SageTV

[brookb]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for offering the help. I tried John's suggestion to modify the mmc/ignore_encoders line, removing the ignoring of my sound chipset. Basically, as soon as I started SageTV, sage edited the file and put it back the way it was before. Sage even removed the comment I'd put in the file. One thing I noticed is that when I copy a working 'backup' (that I've since figured will only work once), the Sage.Properties file doesn't have the mmc/ignore_encoders line in it at all. After exiting SageTV, and upon running SageTV again, sage modifies the file and adds the mmc/ignore_encoders line. Sage then promptly crashes. If, instead of copying the old sage.properties file, I simply delete the entire mmc/ignore_encoders line, and restart, things seem to be OK for one run. SageTV has already edited the sage.properties file as it started up, however, it doesn't crash (immediately) this time. Past experience has shown it may work for up to 24 hours before completely freezing up the computer.

That mmc/ignore_encoders line definitely has something to do with it.

My hardware is as follows:

Motherboard Via C3M266 (might have letter out of place)
Processor Via C3 800mhz
OS Win 2K - about 6 months old and highly configured for home automation, file server, and low bandwidth web server - not just TV. These things its doing are very low CPU usage - its just me accessing the web server once every few days. I just installed the SP2 service pack right before installing Sage.

I use on-board audio and video. No sound cards. Only other card in system, other than Hauppauge, is a modem.

System Information says:
Item Value
OS Name Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional
Version 5.0.2195 Service Pack 2 Build 2195
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name NOYBSERV-2K
System Manufacturer VIA Technologies, Inc.
System Model VT8623-8235
System Type X86-based PC
Processor x86 Family 6 Model 7 Stepping 8 CentaurHauls ~800 Mhz
BIOS Version Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG
Windows Directory C:\WINNT
Locale United States
Total Physical Memory 490,992 KB
Available Physical Memory 291,064 KB
Total Virtual Memory 1,688,980 KB
Available Virtual Memory 1,276,052 KB
Page File Space 1,197,988 KB

Thanks for all your help!

[justme]

From looking at your log files(sagetv_X.txt) that you posted it seems that they are all of the type where SageTV failed to load. Now that you can get it to load properly(for one time) maybe you should post log files from right after SageTV starts up and right after it crashes(as you expect) while running. These logs should have more info in them that could help figure this out.

[robogeek]

I must say that after installing v1.4.8RC1 I am impressed with the improvements and stability of SageTV and SageRecorder on my systems. I recently added a DVCR as a network encoder and it seems to be working without the A/V sync issues I had earlier. So I then decided to re-enable the DVCR in my SageTV server as well but haven't had the opportunity to test out recordings on it yet. So far the SageTV server and network encoder seem to be working without any problems. I thought I'd give the Intelligent Recordings another try and really like the way it works now. Awsome!

But...(you seen this coming didn't you )...I haven't been able to get SageTVClient to work since upgrading. I'm getting a 'There was an error with the MPEG-2 video setup. Failed rendering video stream ErrCode=0x80040231' error. I've tried rebooting both the client and server with no luck. Sometimes I can get live tv to display but when I try to change channels or select a different show in the guide it gives me this error. Then if I try to change channels again or select another show, instead of giving me another error SageTVClient crashes and closes. I am using the PowerDVD Cyberlink decoder and have been for awhile without problems. I haven't tried installing another decoder or reinstalling the Cyberlink decoder yet, but I don't see why I would have to do that since nothing else on the HTPC has changed since upgrading to this new beta.

I've attached all the log and error files. Let me know if there is anything else you need.